Baimudan- From The Best Tea House Canada

Basic Info about this TeaFrom Fujian ChinaWhite Peony: One bud one leaf ratio white TeaBrewing Parameters
Temperature (95 degrees celsius)
Brewing Vessel (My yellow hand painted Jingdezhen Gaiwan, 100ml)
Grams of Leaves ( 5 grams)
Steeping Time ( less than 3 seconds per infusion, increasing by 10 seconds after the third infusion)
Main Info
Number of Total Steeps (6 good ones)
Aroma of Dry Leaves ( plumy, vegital, and quite heavy )
Aroma of Wet Leaves ( wet, leather, and like a Puerh)
Taste Profile ( See paragraphs below )
Texture Profile ( smooth and silky, some astringency from the first to third brew)
Feeling/ Aftertaste ( cooling, but the tea seems to get stuck near the throat)
Attitude Ranking: 6.5/10

Silvery buds with leaves

When I initially received this tea, the tea was inside a foil bag. Like the metallic bags, but I took the tea out and placed it into a plastic bag a few days after. The tea definitely does have a lot of dust, and that was probably why the tea released it’s juices so fast. I have no previous information on the terrior, the year of picking and processing, and other facts that usually are important to analyze as well. That even said, the tea still was something enjoyable and refreshing but not my type of tea that I would enjoy everyday.

Dark brew. Amber orange is not very common with newer white teas.

The first infusion was dark and strong, producing a slightly astringent brew. The flavor is mild, and not as powerful as I wanted it to be. The fragrance isn’t bad, but it’s just too light. The body feels lighter than expected, despite the heavy colour. I was tasting some nuttiness but with a earthy overtone, accompanied with plums and grass. The taste did have some of the character that I associate with baimudan, but not as obvious. I almost thought it must be aged because of the colour. Man, it was so dark and quite weird! The apperance fooled me.

Still amber orange, is it aged?

The second and third infusions has a very pleasant cooling effect around the sides of my tongue. But, it gets dry very quickly and the flavor of the very natural, sweet, white tea taste dissipates. I don’t quite understand the reasoning behind this.
The fourth and fifth infusions was probably the best ones out of all six. Flavor was milder, and less astringent. Calm and cool, the tea wasn’t as weird as the first and second brew. By the sixth infusion, the tea died down quite a while, and took almost 5 minutes to brew to the normal strength I like. Some honey notes, grape notes, but not as pure as a baimudan I tried before.

The brewed leaves look quite green, so must be young! But why was the brew so dark?

Teaheads, what could’ve I done wrong? Was it because I stored in inside a plastic bag for two weeks? Could it be that I dried out the tea? Maybe so. If I dried the tea out, I learned a good lesson today. Don’t move your teas into many storage areas, and keep it clean, dry, and out of light. It is maybe because I left the tea on my display that faces light and the tea absorbed some unwanted characteristics? This was a very good experiment on how storage affects your brew. The tea is alive, and will react to the environment quite constantly. You are able to see that the colour is abnormally dark and red for a relatively new white tea. Anyhow, was a great session to see and think about what could’ve went wrong. A cup of tea is always a reflection of the causes that was created!

The reason I gave this tea a 6.5 was because for me, this tea was kind of strange. The flavors were nice but not what I was expecting. Also, the tea didn’t last as long as what I wished, and so that’s why I am giving it a 6.5. I love The Best Tea House nonetheless, and more amazing BTH teas to come!